- Letters: P/ACILRT
- Words: 50
- Points: 210
- Pangrams: 1
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The table provides clues for the roots of words in today's NY Times Spelling Bee. You're responsible for prefixes, suffixes,
tense changes, plurals, doubling consonants before suffixes, and alternate spellings of roots. An exception:
since Sam won't allow S, when the root contains an S, the clue may be for a plural or suffixed form. "Mice" for example.
If a clue isn't self-explanatory, try googling it. And if AI tries to be too helpful, try prefixing your search with "word for" or "word meaning".
The TL;DR about the site comes after the table.
Past clues are available here |
Today's puzzle
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Table content
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| answers covered | answer's first letter | answer's length | clue for root (answer may need prefix, suffix, tense change, alt spelling, ...) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | 6 | S Am mammal similar to but smaller than a llama |
| 1 | A | 5 | Separately (… from that), or in pieces (taken …) |
| 1 | A | 6 | Horrify (his tasteless jokes … me) |
| 1 | A | 7 | Soviet admin system (…-chik) |
| 1 | C | 7 | City where government is located (Washington, DC, Albany, Sacramento, etc.) |
| 1 | C | 5 | Tight-fitting pants that end near the calf |
| 1 | C | 4 | Gefilte fish source, noun; or to complain (… about), verb |
| 2 | C | 5,6 | Group of eight bones that form the wrist and part of the hand |
| 1 | C | 7 | “Cigar tree” |
| 1 | C | 4 | Applaud |
| 1 | C | 8 | absurdity; or nonsense, compound |
| 1 | C | 4 | Device to hold things together (paper or hair …), noun/verb |
| 1 | C | 4 | Excrement, or something of extremely poor quality, noun/verb |
| 1 | P | 4 | Formal agreement, treaty (don’t make one with the Devil) |
| 1 | P | 4 | Bucket, NOT white-faced |
| 1 | P | 4 | Twosome (socks, aces, e.g.) |
| 1 | P | 6 | Traditional Mexican shelter roofed with palm leaves or branches, esp. on a beach, noun |
| 1 | P | 7 | Roof of the mouth |
| 1 | P | 8 | Resembling a royal residence (Buckingham?); spacious & splendid, adj. |
| 1 | P | 4 | Figurative dark cloud, or funeral "bearer" |
| 1 | P | 4 | Arthropod antenna for touch & taste, or start of medical exam by touch term |
| 1 | P | 4 | Father, slang |
| 1 | P | 5 | Pontiff adj. |
| 1 | P | 7 | Small rounded bump on body part such as tongue (from Latin) |
| 1 | P | 4 | Some but not all, or line combed into hair |
| 1 | P | 7 | Incomplete; or tending to favor someone or something, negated form is a pangram |
| 1 | P | 7 | Musical suite of variations, usually for a solo instrument |
| 1 | P | 4 | A printed type size, or medical condition that makes you want to eat non-foods |
| 1 | P | 7 | Cooked in a sauce of lemon, parsley, & butter (chicken or veal …) |
| 1 | P | 4 | Tablet of medicine |
| 1 | P | 6 | Tall vertical structure that supports or decorates a building; or, figuratively, someone who reliably supports a group (… of the community) |
| 1 | P | 5 | Ground-dwelling bird that wags its tail & is named for its song |
| 1 | P | 7 | Someone from a ship that flies the Jolly Roger; sea thief, often depicted with an eye patch |
| 1 | P | 4 | Flat bread with a pocket, often dipped in hummus or filled with falafel |
| 1 | P | 7 | Rhyming, usually hyphenated, adv. for rapid beating (my heart went …) |
| 1 | P | 5 | Hair braid, noun/verb |
| 1 | P | 4 | Construction map; omit end vowel in dish synonym |
| 1 | P | 9 | Likely to succeed; or concerned with doing things rather than theory, adj., pangram |
| 1 | P | 4 | Brit slang for a fool or butt (“…fall”); similar to “Jurassic Park” actor Chris |
| 1 | P | 7 | Penis adj.: resembling one, relating to ♂ sexuality, or having a persistently erect one; from Greek mythology |
| 1 | R | 4 | Fascinated, mesmerized; adj. |
| 1 | R | 7 | Device to catch large rodents, or a run-down place, compound |
| 1 | T | 4 | Spanish bar snack (usually plural) |
| 1 | T | 5 | Animal similar in appearance to a pig, lives in Central & S America & SE Asia |
| 1 | T | 4 | Waterproof sheet used as outdoor roof, abbr. |
| 1 | T | 4 | Native Am conical hut; Spelling Bee accepts 3 spellings |
| 1 | T | 7 | Common bland-tasting fish |
| 1 | T | 4 | Device for catching things |
| 1 | T | 4 | Journey, noun (you’ve won a … to Paris!), or stumble (… over your own 2 feet), verb |
This site provides clues for a day's New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle. It follows in Kevin Davis' footsteps. The original set of 4,500 clues came from him, and they still make up about three quarters of the current clue set.
The "Bee Roots" approach is to provide explicit clues for root words, not every word. As logophiles, we are pretty good at putting on prefixes and suffixes, changing tense, and forming plurals (including Latin plurals!). The clues cover root words, arranged alphabetically by root word, with a count of words in the puzzle that come from each root. For example, if a puzzle includes ROAM and ROAMING, there will be a clue for ROAM and a count of 2. The root may not appear in the puzzle at all; for example, the 2021-07-23 Bee included ICED, DEICE, and DEICED. For such a puzzle, the clue would be for ICE with a word count of 3.
The Bee Roots approach involves judgement sometimes. For example, if a puzzle includes LOVE, LOVED, and LOVELY, how many roots are needed to cover them? LOVE and LOVED share the root LOVE, certainly, but LOVELY is tricky. LOVE is part of its etymology, but by now, the word means "exquisitely beautiful," which is a lot farther from the meaning of LOVE than swithcing to past tense. I'm inclined to treat LOVE and LOVELY as separate roots. You may not agree, which is fine. Another thing we logophiles share is a LOVE of arguing about words on social media.
A few words can have one meaning as a suffixed form and another as a stand-alone word. EVENING, for example. In those cases I will use the meaning that I think is more common.
One last complication, until another one pops up: a few roots have multiple spellings, for example LOLLYGAG and LALLYGAG. Depending on the day's letters, and maybe even the editor's whims, one or both could be in the puzzle's answer list. With such roots, you could see a word count of 2, even if there are no applicable prefixes or suffixes.
I will do my best to keep this site up to date and helpful (I hope). Check it out, and tweet feedback to @donswartwout Tweet to @donswartwout